EDITORS NOTE: 03

Two months ago, imagine being told about how different things would be for the summer of 2020. Would you have believed that we’d be publicly wearing masks against the Coronavirus, practising social distancing from one another, and that car and van camping would hit the mainstream media pretty much over night? Heard about a “staycation” yet?

Don’t get me wrong, I live in Spain and we have probably the most severe rules in Europe for the mandatory use of masks and the presence of hand disinfectant in every shop and restaurant in the country, and I am totally grateful for it!

This summer as we start to circulate again, I think our community needs to be extra careful with regards to preventing spreading the virus, as we are naturally travelling from one region to another, which could be hundreds or thousands of km apart. And we need to also consider that in some places, we might actually be unwanted guests at this time while everyone learns how to understand and mature into this “new normal”.

I have plans to make a surf trip to the Atlantic coast in late summer, but I’ll definitely keep a close eye on how things develop before I fill up my tank and head out. I might need to think about a staycation of my own. As soon as our lockdown relaxed back in June, I checked into the closest campsite allowed, eager to enjoy a bit of the sweet van life once again. The camping was 10km from my apartment in the city, as far as we were allowed to travel due to the sanitary region restrictions at the time. But there, on a little pitch in Barcelona by the beach, my girlfriend and I felt the freest we had done in months. Let the advantures re-begin.

ALEX BROWN.

editor@advanturemagazine.com